2022 - Liu Shih-Tung｜Yūgen: The Hidden Grace

Lin & Lin Gallery is pleased to present Yūgen: The Hidden Grace, the solo exhibition of Liu Shih-Tung in December. The exhibition also presents the performance art video Regeneration from 1998, demonstrating the artist's diverse and transmedia approach to creation, as well as his observation and research on the land over the past twenty years.

The title, Yūgen, is derived from a Chinese term used to describe the nature of things. It was later introduced to Japan, where it became an important aesthetic consciousness in Japanese aesthetics. Yūgen refers to the fact that aesthetic conception transcends concrete objects described, telling the richness of things without revealing them, and blank-leaving is its important feature to pursue. This perspective is precisely in line with the pursuit and spirit of Liu's works for years. Liu creates a touching feeling by reorganization of materials with different textures and the automatism of repeated painting. His work reflects the environment and the present moment of life in the layers of collage and coverage, and conveys a poetic and elegant language of creation.

In his new series of works, Liu took the images of Chinese antique, such as jade elephant, jade tablet, Pixiu and so on. He has reorganized time and given them contemporary symbols by applying layers and layers of collage on those objects. At the same time, not only is the painting overflowing with the literati tradition of placing feelings on objects, but a subject-background relationship that belongs to traditional figurative painting also emerges. The images of the antiques are given a new life, inheriting the aesthetic traces of the past whilst engaging in a dialogue with history from a different perspective.

The video work Regeneration recorded the entire process of a turtle's journey from the flat land to the Jade Mountain. In November 1998, Liu went through the streets of Taipei to look for spaces and dug up the precious and unexplored soil in the city to make small clay turtles, which seem to be carrying the memory of the land of Taipei. He placed them on the back of a released turtle called Little Sugarcane, and with the heavy shackle of civilization, it began the tour of the city. Afterwards, Liu brought Little Sugarcane carrying the clay turtles up to the summit of Jade Mountain and released it. The orange pigment on the surface of the clay turtles obscured the nature of the land, and the memory of land seems to become more ambiguous.

A visual language that is complex, fantastical, and mixed with the reality of everyday life is created in Liu's world. While exploring the subtle tensions between picture and painting, he integrates the overproduction of popular culture, such as images cut from newspapers, magazines, and catalogues, extracts the essence of ordinary objects from daily life and transforms them. With the unique and delicate collage technique and creative aesthetics, he constructs a painting space with the spirit of oriental poetry. Liu exerts his intuition and creativity, letting mountains and rocks freely move and grow on the canvas, just like his free and direct creative attitude. And as he said, "Creating is a trace of adventure for me."


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Liu Shih-Tung, born in Miaoli, Taiwan, 1970, received M.F.A. from Taipei National University of the Arts. He has long been concerned with local culture. The "collection" and "reproduction" of ready-mades is his signature style. His diverse and experimental creations have received attention from the art circle both in Taiwan and abroad. His work is in collection of Taipei Fine Arts Museum, White Rabbit Collection, Deutsche Bank Art and so forth. In addition, Liu is frequently awarded and invited as an artist-in-residence. For instance, he received New York Art Creativity Award from Asian Cultural Council Taipei Branch and was in the residence program at Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea; at 18th Street Art Center presenting solo exhibition "Bright Eye" in LA, USA. He was selected by Asian Cultural Council to complete a two-month residency program at Morishita Studio in Tokyo, Japan. And also was in the residence program at OCI Museum of Art, Soul, South Korea. His selected exhibitions including Liu Shih-Tung: Cut Out and Mix, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung, 2021; Cre8tive report, OCI Museum of Art Residency, Seoul, 2016; The Pioneers of Taiwanese Artists, 1961 – 1970, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, 2014; Time Games, Contemporary Appropriations of the Past, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2012; Joyluck Monster, Fubon Art Foundation, Taipei, 2005; Scylla and Charybdis in Love: The Challenges Facing Contemporary Taiwanese Artists, Gwangiu Art Museum, Gwangju,2004; Neon Light Flash．Flash．Flash, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2001; Regeneration, Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwangju, 2001; Abnormal Temple, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2000; 1997 Final Roam, Abnormal Temple, Sanchih, 1997, etc.

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